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3 Houston Health Tech Innovators to Know This Week

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Editor’s Note: Each week, I feature a handful of Houston innovators who have recently made headlines with news about innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week’s batch features three health tech innovators celebrating milestones for each of their companies.

Matthew Kuhn, Co-Founder and CEO of Taurus Vascular

Taurus Vascular is about to put an end to abdominal aortic aneurysms for good. Photo courtesy of TNVC

A Houston biotech company has won the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition (TNVC). Taurus Vascular took first place with $30,000.

Taurus Vascular is working on a new solution to stop abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) before they rupture and become life-threatening. The company was born out of TMC’s Biodesign Innovation Program. Fellows Matthew Kuhn and Melanie Lowther were given one year to bring a company to fruition. The highly skilled team boasts Kuhn’s 40+ patents and Lowther’s previous role as director of entrepreneurship and innovation at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The competition process was very intense and included presentations to marketing experts over several stages. In fact, the selection process lasts four months and includes coaching to help competitors succeed in their pitches. Learn more.

Tim Boire, CEO and Co-Founder of VenoStent

VenoStent has raised additional funding. Image courtesy of VenoStent

A clinical-stage Houston health tech company with a novel therapeutic device has raised venture capital funding and a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

VenoStent Inc., which is currently conducting clinical trials with its bioabsorbable perivascular envelope, announced the closing of a $20 million Series A funding round co-led by Good Growth Capital and IAG Capital Partners. The two Charleston, South Carolina-based companies also led VenoStent’s 2023 Series A funding round, which closed last year at $16 million.

In addition, the company has obtained a $3.6 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the NIH, which will help fund its 200-patient multicenter randomized controlled trial in the United States.

Tim Boire, CEO and co-founder of VenoStent, describes 2024 as “a momentous year” for his company. Learn more.

Howard Berman, CEO and Co-Founder of Coya Therapeutics

Coya Therapeutics announced an expanded research collaboration with the Houston Methodist Research Institute, as well as funding from the Johnson Center. Photo via LinkedIn

A clinical-stage Houston biotech company has expanded its collaboration with the Houston Methodist Research Institute, or HMRI.

Coya Therapeutics is already established enough to have gone public since late 2022, but there is still room to grow. With the help of a new sponsored research agreement, Coya will work on several initiatives. Coya is led by co-founder and CEO Howard Berman, who was inspired by his father’s dementia diagnosis.

“I was interested in what I could do for my dad,” Berman said on the Houston Innovators Podcast, explaining that he met renowned Houston Methodist neurologist and researcher Dr. Stanley Appel, who showed him that he was not only working on treatments that could help Berman’s late father, but that he had been able to stop the progression of ALS. Learn more.

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